This summer, the Bourse de Commerce – Pinault Collection unveils clinamen, a captivating installation by Céleste Boursier-Mougenot, on view from June 5th to September 21st, 2025. Taking over the Bourse de Commerce rotunda, the artist reimagines the historic space as a meditative, multisensory environment where architecture, sound, and water converge in quiet harmony.
At the center of clinamen is an 18-meter-wide circular pool set directly beneath the rotunda’s glass dome. Dozens of porcelain bowls float across the water’s surface, gently colliding to create a delicate, unchoreographed musical composition. These subtle acoustic vibrations—generated without human touch—form a living soundscape that shifts continuously with each motion, inviting visitors into a suspended moment of calm.
The work takes its name from clinamen, a term from ancient philosophy describing the unpredictable swerve of atoms. For Céleste Boursier-Mougenot, this idea becomes a poetic metaphor for the installation’s random yet resonant movements. Influenced by Dada, Fluxus, and experimental sound practices, the artist transforms everyday materials into instruments of sensory wonder.
More than just a spectacle, clinamen turns the Bourse de Commerce rotunda into a site of shared reflection—where visitors are encouraged to drift, listen, and reconnect with time, space, and perception. For Céleste Boursier-Mougenot, the installation is not a finished object but a fluid composition, shaped by its surroundings and each individual encounter.
clinamen (v.9), 2023, UrbanScape: Connectivity and Coexistence, curated by NIA Seoul, ACC Creation Space 2, Asia Culture Center, Gwangju, South Korea
Courtesy of CÉLESTE BOURSIER-MOUGENOT, ADAGP, Paris 2025, ACC photography by DESIGN IAM
Courtesy of CÉLESTE BOURSIER-MOUGENOT, PAULA COOPER GALLERY, New York; GALERIE XIPPAS, Paris ; GALERIE MARIO MAZZOLI, Berlin